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Check out WR Kyle Hudson's responses during Wednesday afternoon's chat session. Thanks to those of you who sent in questions.
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| Moderator: Good afternoon, and welcome to the chat room. Kyle is here; we'll be getting started in just a minute or two... |
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| Lance (Skokie): Wasup Kyle, this is Rashard's friend. How focused are you guys for iowa? I hope the team isn't still gloating from last week's win. |
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Kyle Hudson: We came in this week, and Coach Zook talked to us about that. All we're thinking about is Iowa. We will build on last week's win, but that's behind us. We're going to work as hard as we can in practice in order to get a win at Iowa. |
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| Jack (Peoria): Hey, Kyle--Is Brit Miller as crazy as he seems on the interviews I've watched? |
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Kyle Hudson: I would definitely know the answer to this question. We were roommates by freshman year. I've gotten to know him pretty well. He's defintely as crazy, or crazier than you have seen him in interviews or on TV. |
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| Eric (Rock Island): The offense has been very run-heavy so far, and for good reason, Rashard and Juice are tearing it up on the ground. But as a WR, you have to wish they'd open it up a little more, right? |
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Kyle Hudson: Obviously as receivers, we'd like to be catching balls. But the whole team...all we care about is winning. I think our time will come as receivers. When our numbers are called, we will make those plays. Juice and Rashard and the other running backs are doing great. We've been winning, and that's what we're about. |
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| Brian (Pinckneyville): I'm sure your time is completely dominated by football and baseball, but if you had a few more hours in the day, is there another sport you'd try to play? |
| Moderator: I always loved to play basketball, but I'm too short for that. Another thing...track was one of the sports I participated in during high school. I wouldn't mind seeing if I can still jump as high as I used to in a track meet. |
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| Emily (Winona, MN): The last couple of weeks when you guys have gone into the student section after wins, we've seen Will Davis try to play a trombone and Erique Robertson put on a Marching Illini member's tall hat. Have you done anything crazy like that with your fellow students? |
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Kyle Hudson: I've been one of the guys leading the charge up into the stands. I've gotten stuck in the crowd, so I haven't been able to do that much once I got up there. Hopefully, we'll have a chance to do that again soon. |
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| Ron (Bloomington): Do you have a favorite pass route to run? Also, being a baseball guy, too, who's your favorite to win the World Series this month? |
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Kyle Hudson: My favorite pass route? I don't have one favorite. But I do like to go for the long passes. Every receiver's dream is to get the long one. I was rooting for the Cubs for the short time they were in the playoffs. But since they're gone, maybe somebody new like the Colorado Rockies. |
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| Chris (Farmer City): I heard you could have played in the Cape Cod League over the summer, which is a pretty big step towards playing in the pros, but passed it up for football. Do you ever wish you would have played, and is that something you might do in the future? |
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Kyle Hudson: It was a tough decision for me to make. I met with Coach Zook about it, and I felt that the best thing for me right now was to stay with the football team this past summer, to get with Juice and the quarterbacks and work on our timing, and so forth. It's definitely a possibility down the road. I'm concerned about the season right now--getting victories. |
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| Matt (Gurnee): How does it feel to be in the top 20 in the polls. |
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Kyle Hudson: Obviously it's a great feeling to be on one of the teams in the national spotlight right now. But that doesn't really mean much right now. We just want to focus right now on the games we're playing, and if we play well, hopefully we can move up even higher in the rankings when they really count...at the end of the season. |
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| Joe (Springfield): Kyle--You've been returning punts for several weeks now. How are you enjoying that role, and what has been the biggest challenge or adjustment you have faced? |
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Kyle Hudson: I've been enjoying it quite a bit. It was a change...I had not done it since high school. As a player, it's always good to get your hands on the ball. The main thing about it has been concentrating on catching the ball and trusting the blockers to create a lane to run in. |
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| Bloomy (Carol Stream): Which sport do you enjoy more baseball or football? |
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Kyle Hudson: Most of the time, I always answer, "whatever's in season.' I'm always focused on the sport that I'm in at the time. Right now, of course, it's football, and we're just looking to beat Iowa this Saturday. |
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| Emily, Rockford: How big of an adjustment was there to Juice's velocity and has his touch improved this year? |
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Kyle Hudson: That's one of the things we worked on all summer long--the timing between the receivers and the quarterbacks. All of our quarterbacks have improved tremendously since last year, and so have the receivers. |
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| Omaha, Neb.: Kyle, what were your expectations for the team before the start of the season? And my 17-month-old boxer, Illini, says 'thank you for catching that onside kick.' |
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Kyle Hudson: One of the expectations was to go to a bowl game...that's one of our goals every year. I felt that with all of the hard work we put in over the off-season, that we would have a great chance to go to a bowl game. And we're still working toward that. |
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| Slick Nouujy: You look very tiny. How does it feel when you TRY and block someone? |
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Kyle Hudson: I may not be as tiny as I may seem on TV, but Coach Lou Hernandez has had us down in the weight room, and it has really improved our strength. The receivers have been working really hard on improving our blocking techniques, and it has paid off, because this season we have been blocking very well, especially downfield. That has helped our backs get some long runs. |
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